436 



Scientific Proceedings (132) 



kali. After repeated precipitations and thorough washing the dis- 

 solved material is passed through a Berkefeld filter and repre- 

 cipitated. The final precipitate is washed rapidly with acetone 

 and ether and dried in vacuo. The preparation so obtained 

 is a whitish powder, readily soluble in faintly alkaline solution, 

 possessing the properties of a mixture of nucleoprotein and 

 mucoid. It contains about 16 per cent, of nitrogen and 0.5 per 

 cent, phosphorus. 



Solutions of nucleoprotein prepared from one type of pneu- 

 mococcus (Type II) react in about equal degree with all three 

 types of antipneumococcus serum, and not with antityphoid or 

 normal horse serum. This fact, if confirmed by subsequent in- 

 vestigation of the protein from pneumococci of other types, 

 would indicate, on the basis of specific precipitin reactions, that 

 all pneumococci possess in part at least a common specific protein. 

 The protein of pneumococcus, as contrasted with the non-protein 

 fraction or soluble specific substance is not type specific, but 

 reacts with antipneumococcus serum regardless of type deriva- 

 tion. It is therefore species specific, not type specific. 



218 (2178) 



Gastric antacids which cannot act as systemic alkalies. 

 By ISIDOR GREEN WALD. 



[From the Harriman Research Laboratory, The Roosevelt Hos- 

 pital, New York City.] 



The antacid most frequently used in the treatment of hyper- 

 chlorhydria is sodium bicarbonate. But this is not only an an- 

 tacid but an alkali, so that the contents of the stomach occasion- 

 ally become alkaline. Moreover, the amount required to con- 

 trol the gastric symptoms is frequently sufficient to make the 

 urine alkaline. Both these alkalinizations are regarded as un- 

 physiological. Direct evidence of the occasional toxic action of 

 therapeutic doses of sodium bicarbonate has recently become 

 available. 1, 2 



1 C. A. L. Binger, A. B. Hastings and J. M. Neill, Arch. Intern. Med., 

 1923, xxxi, 45. 



2 Leo L. Hardt and Andrew B. Rivers, Arch. Intern. Med., 1923, xxxi, 171. 



